Definition

Cultural diffusion happens when there is a spreading of cultural traits and norms from one society/environment to another. Nowadays, it has become a mainstream process and it currently plays a massive role all over the world with its applications ranging from business to technology.

If one decides to cross a society boundary, he/she gets familiarized with interactions with people belonging to different cultures and such interactions become highly significant for their growth and moral success.

The process of learning has no end to it and a culture can benefit and improve itself from some foreign culture by accepting some of that foreign culture’s useful traits and hence improving itself based on what can be learned from others.  This is done mostly organically through trade, travel, and immigration.

Mediums of diffusion

If we consider the trade aspect when various countries trade their goods, these goods can be blended into different cultures and can become a trend in various areas. Secondly, if we talk about travel or immigration when people travel or migrate to a different country, they often bring their customs and traditions along with them.

A good example of it can be of Pakistani food being now popular in various areas in the United Kingdom and Canada mainly because student federations from their homelands have started opening local food courts there which would not have otherwise been available.

The positive and negative traits

However, there are both positive and negative effects of cultural diffusion. If we consider the positives, they have led to culture benefiting through cultural exchanges. Another positive effect is that there is no cultural discrimination. There is also the advancement of new technologies which is then shared around the world contributing to a lot of beneficial changes in peoples’ lives.

If we consider the negatives, there is the negligence or even loss of one’s own cultural identity and traditions. For example, the idea of celebrating the Indian Color Festival in Pakistan has now become a social norm. There is also the spreading of various diseases that were prone to one country and are now spread across another country by the people who bring them along.